London 30 January 2016

Back to London - there is just so much to see and do, it's always new, and old, if you get my drift?

Arriving at Paddington I walked through the streets towards Hyde Park, looking into hidden courtyards just off busy main roads.

And past St James church where they have lunchtime and evening music concerts.  I'm not into organised religion in any way but I do love the music.

It was so cold!  Heading into Hyde Park through the Italian Gardens, it wasn't really time to linger but the light was beautiful. Definitely a silver lining ...

But so wintery ...

A corner out of the wind and time for a chat with a friend.

Past Kensington Palace, a dedicated trip for another day.  There are quite a few Henry Moore sculptures that I've seen in my travels - they fit well into landscapes.  This is The Arch (with blackbird bombing!)

Past the Serpentine with swans bathing ..

Finally, the V&A Museum, but first things first -

Then on to the exhibits - so much to see without even getting to the special exhibitions.

In the late afternoon I happened to look out of the window in the modern section and smiled to see everyone trying to catch the last rays of sunshine.

What would be your choice of bookcase?

The Museum has an extraordinary collection of ceramics.

And silver ..

And glass ..

But it didn't hold the everyone's attention ...

Time for some fresh air - back out into the cold, and if possible, it had got colder!

Opposite, at the Natural History Museum there had been a queue of people since before I arrived in the morning.  All queuing to see the Wildlife Photographer of the year - worth going to see.

Brrrrr.  Home!

Windsor Great Park 17 January 2016

Finally!  The first snow of the winter!

So exciting even though it only lasted about 18 hours.  There was a walk scheduled for the Great Park and this was the ideal place to experience snow for the first time.  I've seen snow in South Africa but only alongside the road while travelling.  It wasn't a particularly cold day and quite a large group met up at the Bishopsgate entrance.

Even now the snow was starting to melt

These palms look quite strange with a dusting of snow ...

There was a race taking place in the park and the lead runners were in shorts and Tshirts.  Always knew runners were strange people.  The back runners were more sensibly dressed.

We headed in towards the copper horse (or known by this blog as Big Daddy) and passed by a small herd of deer.

I didn't expect it because the fields of snow looked quite pristine, but there was about a foot of mud underneath all that white.  Quite difficult to wade through.  Though the horses were doing fine.

There was quite a bit of ice on the water.

Heading up the long slope towards the Obelix - raised around 1750.

And into the Savill Gardens.  The tearoom first for a very welcome cup of tea and cake and a pastry (not all mine!)  Banana bread and a raspberry danish - almost health food.

Mid winter but still a surprising amount of colour around - I haven't been here before but I'm looking forward to summer.  By all accounts, it's a spectacular sight.

Then a trudge back to the car park.  It would be good to get home and dry off.

Back to Kew 10 January 2016

Back to Kew on a very chilly day but the sky was blue - you have to get out on days like this.  Kew in winter is still surprisingly beautiful with lots of greenery and even some flowers in the gardens.  I like to see the bare bones of the trees.  This Black Pine tree though is apparently the unluckiest one around - it's been struck by lightening twice and was hit by a small plane back in the early 1900s.

I headed towards the Princess of Wales Conservatory where it was so warm I was discarding clothing as I went.  Winter clothing in the UK is a whole new vocabulary to me - you just wear so much of everything.  Somedays it's just the cheekbones that are exposed to the elements, but I've been told by a friend that balaclavas' are out of the question, I'm pretty tempted though some mornings. Can you just picture me in a balaclava? Snort ..

I took a lot of pictures.  So many so that it took hours to go through all of them.  Stick with me, I've edited them heavily and done a bunch of collages.

In February Kew are hosting an Orchid festival, but all the orchids are there anyway so no need to get into another queue.

They are just spectacular.  I've never seen so many and so many different ones.

Not only orchids though, Bromeliads and others whose names I cannot remember.

Gorgeous.

Moving through the conservatory takes you through various habitats and you end up in semi desert and desert conditions with plants like agave, cacti and aloe.

I really like this Spoon Flower which is growing at such a rate that they have had to remove part of the roof to accommodate it.

Time for lunch, so get dressed again - it's all very time consuming this taking off and putting on of layers of clothing.  Chicken pie - very tasty.

Then out into the cold again.

And into the Palm House which was built in 1848.  It's full of rainforest plants and hot and humid as you would imagine.

Late afternoon - which is actually only at about 2.30pm but the sun is low in the sky so I thought I'd catch the last of the rays but it was really cold - enough for a hat and scarf and gloves but here was a wedding party and the bride had on a sleeveless strapless dress!  I wonder what her memories of the day will be.  There were a lot of ducks,

The Temperate House is closed for renovations - thank goodness,  I couldn't deal with more disrobing today.  In the summertime perhaps?

The Japanese Gardens though - these are beautiful - calm and peaceful and very structured.

By this time the weather was changing.

Heading back towards the tea room - yes, tea was urgently required - there was this copse of snowdrops.

But tea was calling